SuG

@Jenny_1884 I condensed my working hours and bought annual leave to help our daughter along with our SILs parents to look after our grandchild, now a lovely confident well rounded child. Input from 3 families under strict parental guidance lol 😜

The first 5yrs of a child’s life is the most important time when this is the time where they learn so much & consecutive governments in this country have taken this time away from parents who can know longer afford to stay at home to bring up their own children because they have to work. Shame on our governments for allowing this to happen.

@StreuthItsRuth The school dinners are now chicken nuggets, pizza, bacon and sausage, 1 ‘dinner’ with veg a week (optional cheesy pasta) and fish fingers…, healthier to have a sandwich and fruit!

How many remember school dinners and desserts? Fish and chips. Beef stew and mash. Pie, and all school dinner was really nice. There were no obese kids then and look around, how many now? Give children food they’ll eat. Proper food.

@_HenryBolton This could be Reforms chance to either shine or decline. The winning local Councils will have the ability to prove what they can do in 2 years and will be under the microscope big time before the next GE. @ZiaYusufUK @Nigel_Farage @TiceRichard. 💪🤞🏼

Reform is saying “Vote Reform. Get Starmer out”. I believe Starmer is the worst PM we’ve had for a century or more - and I tried warning everyone before the GE - but local elections don’t remove Prime Ministers. Yes, a wipe out for Labour will, of course, put pressure on the government. But unfortunately it will not, and cannot, force Kier Starmer from office. There’s not been one case in history where that’s happened. He may leave for other reasons, but not for that one. So, your vote won’t do what the Reform slogan tells you it will do. The slogan is designed to make people think their vote can do something it simply can’t. Also, this election will - as you know - not influence Labour’s immigration or any other national policy. Local elections are about local issues: roads, rubbish collection, planning and local services etc not national issues - It is policies concerning those local council matters you should be voting on next month not national ones. Politicians should be honest with voters about what their vote actually does and can do in local elections. They should not campaign on national issues in a way that misleads people about the impact of local elections. It may be “just a slogan”, but it’s a misleading one. If we want to improve British politics and Britain itself we need credibility, honesty and integrity, not slogans that promise things they can’t deliver.

@saniyafatma1278 We had home economics which included cooking, cleaning and shopping, staying a fortnight in a ‘flat’ on school premises during school time, cleaning it and cooking lunches for teachers. Then we had needlework classes where we made clothes from start to finish

@NotFarLeftAtAll Print money rather than cut spending so means prices increase more

So Zack Polanski and the Greens represent.. Legalise all Drugs Scrap Nuclear deterrence Close Prisons Stop Horse Racing Lower Motorway speeds to 55mph No Dogs in Public spaces Open Borders More Migrants Scrap fossil fuels Charge per mile driven Have I missed anything

@ThrillaRilla369 That’s why I gave up work to look after my grandchild to help my daughter and SIL.

It’s crazy how normal it’s become to drop your kids off at daycare five days a week for eight straight hours, just so you can head to a job that mostly covers the daycare bill, the car you need to get there, and the house you barely spend any time in. We’re trapped in this endless loop of working just to afford a life we hardly ever get to actually live.

@sharrond62 He’s too old now.

Would be cool, he’d do a brilliant job

@WorkElizab Yes and vomiting all the way home on the bus 🤢

Really?

@realMaalouf Anyone looked at Bluesky lately?

Humza Yousaf, the former First Minister of Scotland, calls X a ‘cesspool sewer of hatred.’ He says that X is the most racist and Islamophobic social media platform and needs to be regulated. He’s the same guy who complained there’s too many white people in Scotland!

@elaine_bingham @46pebbles @SandyofSuffolk @GBNEWS @MichelleDewbs @miriam_cates Her parents need to change their wills!!

@46pebbles @SandyofSuffolk @GBNEWS @MichelleDewbs @miriam_cates @miriam_cates is obsessed with pensioners . About time @GBNEWS told her to wind er neck in .. i am sure her parents are spitting feathers at her thoughts on pensioners .. She should be ashamed

Sorry @GBNEWS won’t be watching @MichelleDewbs because that selfish woman @miriam_cates is on there. It seems pensioners are money grabbers @SandyofSuffolk

@JustinRoss8378 @CoachRolfes Bit broad brush there, just another Boomer basher! Many of us help our kids year on year!

@CoachRolfes Exactly. It’s an easy way to start them on the road to financial freedom. We can’t have the boomer mentality. My god they believed everything the government told them. No choice but to do the opposite and not hoard all money until death where it was taxed to irrelevance.

I won't wait until I die to help my kids. I will help them in their 30s: 1. With a down payment on a house. 2. Taking their family on vacation 3. Paying for their dinner out 4. Providing free childcare That's better than any big inheritance left at the grave.

@CoachRolfes Yep exactly! It’s grand to see their faces 😍 and grandparents get to enjoy the children without too much responsibility!

@SandyofSuffolk @GBNEWS At least GB news can’t be accused of 1 party representation lol

Ok so I forgot lots of mad lefties on @GBNEWS so we'll just do the women. Who's the worst nuttiest lefty woman on GB News? Nutty Nina. Miriam Cates who pretends to be a Tory. Scarlett McGwire. The gobby Greek. The mad Muslim.

@ZiaYusufUK @5haronl @Nigel_Farage Whoo hoo we have 2 x candidates, that’s an improvement on last time where we only had a social democrat!

🚨 Reform UK is standing candidates in more wards than any other party in the upcoming May 7 elections. Just as we fielded more candidates than any other party last year - a history making event. Few appreciate just what @Nigel_Farage has built in the blink of an eye. Huge congratulations and thanks to our candidates, wonderful branch officers and amazing team who made this happen Bring on May 7, let’s put the uniparty out of business! 🇬🇧

@OkayBiology @JohnCleese Really? After the elections? Does that mean they will be released and the Gov don’t want a backlash prior to May 7. Interesting 🤔

The case has been delayed for a week because of mysterious 'administrative matters' that cannot be reported. As a result of this delay, the outcome of the 5 week trial won't be known until after the local elections. #EverGetTheFeelingYouveBeenCheated

@UK_Optimist @romfordgeeza @miriam_cates Many pension schemes were non contributory eons ago including banks… all have changed now contributing on a sliding scale.

@romfordgeeza @miriam_cates They weren’t always, there must be £ms accumulated without contributing a penny.

@Jenny_1884 Spiders, so quick and so huge!! Small grandson this week said ‘Nannie why are you not scared of grizzly bears but you are of spiders’. It’s so justified even emoji gets me. Had a spider on my back and my top was on the floor no 2nd thoughts in front of folk🫣

Does anybody else have a phobia? I’m scared of cats & would rather cross the road than have to walk past one.

@annaellis_net @SandyofSuffolk @miriam_cates Great response, stop foreign aid and sort out immigration and there’s another whack off saving

Nice try. Let's start with the BSP shall we? The BSP is £9164.80 per year, it's the new State Pension (NSP) that's £12457.60 p.a. Women who don't get enough NI credits don't even get those amounts (carers, stay at home mums, disabled etc.) Two thirds of pensioners are on BSP atm. Then there's the reliance on the SP. That "majority" who have other incomes include many whose workplace pensions net them a cool £50-100 per month. Not exactly going to get them out of penury. But they will have to pay tax on that monthly pittance if it pushes them over the threshold. 9 million imminent retirees have private pensions that don't reach the BSP limit, btw. Not to mention the pensioners who have to find work as shelf-stackers or stock pickers to make ends meet. They're not wholly reliant on a SP either, so it's OK to demonise them? That's how it works? Those on the NSP won't get pension credits. Council tax support is a postcode lottery, is not guaranteed and is means tested. A pensioner couple on NSP may not get any reduction, e.g a couple in Warwickshire need a maximum income of £175 per week to get the full rebate. If both are on NSP? They get no help. Housing benefit is another postcode lottery and also dependent on whether the pensioner's on NSP or BSP. Free travel? Only on buses outside London. Winter fuel payments? Not guaranteed. Senior citizen discounts? Often less than family discounts and entirely in the gift of businesses, who could offer discounts to everybody if they wanted. 75% of pensioners are not millionaires. Not even close. You want to cut government spending. Good. The devolved governments cost £95 billion a year, we could stop that. Let Scotland fund its own free tuition & prescriptions. Give Wales the chance to fund its own UBI pilots. Quangos cost at least £3 billion a year, get rid of their funding. Drastically reduce the spending on government departments (Cabinet Office spends £1.4bn, HMRC spends £6.9bn, DEFRA spends £7.6bn) - got to be at least a £2bn saving across departments. NHS trusts account for £132bn government spending. Perhaps if they stopped rejecting the return of medical equipment and reduced medical malpractice payments, a mere £10bn could be saved? Public sector pension schemes get a £22bn top up annually. Stop that. Private schemes don't get that support. Environmental levies cost £15bn annually. Stop those. Renegotiate any older higher prices. All told, that would save the government £147bn. The pension bill is £163bn. Bit of a shortfall, but it might buy you some breathing space. But no, you'd rather tell granny to shove off, sell the home she's lived in all her life and form an orderly queue out of society. The fact that you'd rather bully the elderly than sort out other government over-spending speaks volumes.

Is the state pension really so 'meagre'? Let's take a look... The basic state pension is just £12,547 a year. But... Only around 15% of pensioners rely on the state pension alone. The vast majority have other income from private pensions etc., which is exactly how our system is designed to work (and why the UK has generous tax breaks for pension contributions). The small proportion of pensioners whose only source of income is the state pension are entitled to other benefits in addition, including pension credit, housing benefit and council tax support. A pensioner with no other income, no savings, no disabilities, no care responsibilities and rent of £800 per month is entitled to £401.55 a week in benefits including state pension, which is £20,881 a year. For comparison, a full time minimum wage worker has an after tax income of £21,364. Unlike a pensioner, a full time minimum wage worker is not entitled to free travel, free prescriptions, a winter fuel payment or senior citizens discounts. £21,000 a year is not a lot of money. But the very poorest pensioners have similar incomes to low-wage workers. Given the greater costs faced by those who are working, it's perhaps not surprising that working age adults are now more likely to live in poverty than pensioners. And at the other end of the scale, one in four pensioners are millionaires and still receive the basic state pension, paid for by current tax payers (including those on minimum wage). No one (definitely not me) is suggesting that the state pension should be reduced for the poorest pensioners. But pension spending now accounts for half of the UK's social security budget and, given the urgent need to cut government spending, we must consider reforms like means-testing and scrapping the triple lock.

@NeilClark66 @GBNEWS I think GB news need to take action it seems they are in danger of losing viewers, she just won’t stop! Someone needs to remove the batteries

These very nasty attacks on the state pension are unrelenting, particularly from this former Tory MP and @GBNEWS presenter. These people want it either scrapped altogether or only available to the very poorest. But all who have made the requisite National Insurance contributions have a RIGHT to a decent state pension. It’s a moral issue too. The elderly deserve a decent life in their remaining years. Indeed, looking after the elderly properly is the hallmark of a humane and civilised society. The anti-state pension activists are truly despicable.

@miriam_cates You’re not selling private pensions very well, my state and private pension, paid into since 1976 totals less than £20881 and another 5 yrs on mortgage and council tax, why did I bother scrimping for my old age But triple lock has to go coz I have a house!